Dementia is an umbrella term for cognitive decline that is typically associated with age. There are numerous types of dementia, including Alzheimer Dementia.
Alzheimer disease is a specific disease that causes dementia.
Amnesia simply means a loss of memory. Like dementia, there are numerous types of amnesia. The most common one is alcohol induced amnesia, aka “blacking out”.
A very simplistic explanation:
Amnesia: memory loss caused by trauma (using this term very broadly), disease or drug use; can be temporary or permanent, can be loss of memories or inability to form new ones. It’s not just forgetting things, but more like whole chunks are gone.
Dementia: broad term for brain disorders that affects cognitive function (memory, thinking, problem-solving, etc) and is also a broad term for symptoms declining brain function. Dementia gets worse over time, although sometimes can be reversed.
Alzheimer’s: a form of dementia, an incurable disease.
Dementia involves more than one type of mental ability. For example, a person with dementia may have trouble with memory, planning, and language abilities. (One caveat: to qualify as dementia, a person must have their deficits while having “a clear sensorium.” That is, they can’t be drunk, stoned, or delirious.) Alzheimers disease is one type of dementia.
Amnesia refers specifically to a failure in memory.
Amnesia and some types of dementia can be permanent or temporary. Some examples of temporary causes of dementia are hypothyroidism and severe depression.
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